Thursday, 23 October 2014

I'm loving spying around everyone's beautiful photos of Autumn colour. It really makes our outings with the wee man a bit more special Autumn and we usually end with a collection of leaves and sticks and conkers. We have had variations in the weather from rain to sunshine. I recently took the opportunity of one of those days to enjoy the sunshine and colour and turn the camera on my other muse for a while.

Wednesday, 22 October 2014

This morning I woke up to my wee man "reading" his books in bed. Slowly pronouncing each letter and trying to form the words.

My wee man has hit a serious learning curve. I'll be honest I might be a tad excited and proud watching it all happen. I also might be going a tad overboard with encouraging it as much as I can. To be honest though he just seems to be just as excited and eager about it all without us. It's all started with his introduction to jolly phonics. He brings home a letter each week and then we spend a couple minutes each day talking about it. Here is where I go overboard and get crafty with it too. Nothing like googling a letter each week to find out what they are for.

After a twitter conversation with some teachers (who are great parents who blog) we were re introduced to the alphablocks. It certainly eases the guilt a little bit when I stick him in front of the TV and I have been saved from Umizumi. ABC is definitely the wee man's favourite song now as well as the jolly phonics song for each letter. He loves to write now too, focusing hard and following the dots. Then it seems to have spilled over into his drawing and colouring too. He certainly tries a bit harder now to stay in the lines. We have distinguishing bodily features now for the face arms and legs and he'll even give you a bit of hair. He drew his first bus as a rectangle and wheels.

Our craft activities are a lot more focused and we have an impressive collection of monsters and fish. Our key craft materials now are glitter and glue and googly eyes. Having a wooden floor and a wipeable plastic tablecloth makes coping with the mess a lot easier. I had to restock his craft box properly with card, paper plates and coloured tissue paper. Recycling in this household has taken on a whole new meaning. Admittedly I still like just giving him some materials and leaving him to his imagination and I love hearing all about what he is creating.

Tuesday, 21 October 2014

The one thing I have enjoyed about this pregnancy is not spending too much time questioning what kind of mum I'm going to be. I have not touched a book about parenthood, been tempted to buy a parenting magazine or got caught up in parenting forum debates. I know very well every child is different and I'm sure she is probably going to throw things at me that I have not been confronted with before. I figure I have plenty of time to question what to do once she is born. I do secretly hope to be more relaxed about facing it but definately plan not to be so hard on myself. I surprise myself by being excited about how different her personality and character will be and it's a fun guessing game discussion with daddy.

There is one question that inevitably raises it's head with number two though and it seems to be a question of love. Will I care and love my second as much as my first? How is this new bundle going to fit into our family of 3? It's the one thing that you know for sure you do right by your child by loving them unconditionally. There is plenty of love here though I think and I can already feel the bond growing with this wriggling bump.

One thing the wee man definitely has at the minute is all of my attention. I can't help but wonder how it will be for him when he suddenly has to share it. Lots of people ask me actually how does he feel about it and all I can really say is he seems okay. He definately has not said he does not want a baby sister and sometimes he even says "my baby." He is speaking so sweetly about it at the minute and gives my bump plenty of cuddles and kisses. We include him as much as possible in this journey and hope that always keeping him involved will help. He is generally great with babies and I can see him being a good brother. At the end of the thoughts in my head though I will just never really know until she gets here.

Sunday, 19 October 2014

This Saturday we decided to go for a walk at the Damsflask Reservoir. Yorkshire water have some great accessible walks in the area and they do often offer lovely views of the surrounding countryside. They are a great option for stretching the legs with the wee man and if you are pushing a pushchair. Of course the wee man loves the opportunity to throw stones in the water. My pockets also came home inundated with conkers and with recent weather meant there was plenty of muddy puddles. There was the added bonus of a café in Bradfield where we were able to treat ourselves to a lovely lunch after. It's nice to have these options to explore and get some fresh air.